The Cardinals would be sending Jack Flaherty to the mound this afternoon in search of a sweep of the Marlins before heading back to STL tomorrow afternoon for the home opener.
Jack would be opposed by Pablo López, who would hold the Cardinals bats in check through the first 6 innings, holding them to just 2 hits through those innings.
Edman would lead things off with a single to LF and quickly get doubled up on a Goldy scorched grounder to Aguilar at 1B for the 3-6-3 double play. López ended his inning getting Arenado to groundout to Anderson on the 15th pitch.
Jack would run in to a bit of a wall in his first inning of work, needing 25 pitches to escape. The first two batters of the game (Dickerson & Marte) would reach base with a single to LF and a walk to bring up Aguilar.
With Aguilar at the plate, Flaherty would take a little extra time with his delivery, getting Dickerson to get a gigantic secondary lead off 2B and eventually run his way into getting picked off, 1-4-5 on the play. Aguilar would work a walk, but Flaherty would get the next two, getting Cooper to flyout to Edman in RF and Anderson to ground into a force out, 4-6 on the putout.
The Dickerson leadoff single would be the only Miami hit vs Flaherty, and their only hit until the bottom of the 8th vs Cabrera.
Flaherty would strikeout the side in his second inning of work, getting Chisholm, (swinging) Berti (looking), and Wallach (swinging) to go down on heaters and a filthy slider.
López would trade strikeouts with Flaherty, as both starters would rack up six before hitting the showers. Of Flaherty’s six strikeouts, three were via the 4SFB and three were via the slider.
The Cardinals would finally break the 0-0 open in the top of the 7th, getting a nice two out rally starting with a Matt Carpenter walk vs López to bring up Yadi. Yadi would get an 0-1 fastball up and in to his liking and crush it to LF for a 2-run shot to make it 2-0 Birds. Yadi hit the ball 103.9mph and 427 feet for his 1st HR of the season.
Génesis Cabrera would relieve Jack in the 7th, working a breeze of a 1-2-3 inning on just nine pitches. Carlson would take extra bases away from Brian Anderson to open the inning, making a nice adjustment on his route to track down the deep fly ball from the Marlins 3B. Chisholm would fly out to Carlson and Berti would ground out to Edman, newly shifted to 2B with Williams taking over in RF after a double switch.
The Cards would add an insurance run for Cabrera, sparking another two out rally. Edman would get things going on Cimber with a base hit into RF to bring up Goldy. With Goldschmidt at the plate, Edman would swipe 2B for his second steal of the season. Goldy would then line an RBI single into LF to score Edman to make it 3-0 Cards.
Cabrera went back out for the 8th, striking out the first two he faced (Wallach & Brinson) on high sinkers at 95mph. Dickerson would pick up his second, and the teams second hit next, lining a two out double into LF.
Marte would then ground out back to Cabrera for the innings final out. Ending his outing on 22 pitches, striking out two.
Zach Pop would get the 9th for Miami, allowing the first three batters he faced to get on base without putting a ball in play. Pop would walk DeJong, hit Nogowski (pinch-hitting) square on the hand at 95mph, and a walk to Yadi to load ‘em up. Pop would get O’Neill to swing and miss at some good pitches, eventually striking him out with a 94mph sinker.
But that wouldn’t stop Dylan Carl Bean from what he was about to do with the bases loaded. Carlson would get a high and outside 3-2 fastball from Pop and blast it to deep RCF, basically CF of loanDepot park for a grand slam. His 3rd HR and 9th rbi of the season. He hit the ball 102.2mph and 409 feet, extending the Cards lead to 7-0.
Jordan Hicks would get the 9th inning in a blowout. He had already been warming up and had the day off the game before, so I agreed with bringing him in this game with such a big lead. The idea is to ease him in, right? This would do just that facing the heart of the Marlins order.
Aguilar would greet him with a leadoff single on a liner to Williams in RF (entered via double switch for Carp; Edman to 2B). Hicks would then make quick work of Cooper, getting him to fan at an 89mph slider on the outside to bring up Anderson. Anderson would finally reach base after hitting into bad luck, walking to put two runners on with still one out. Hicks would get Chisholm and Berti to fly out, Jazz lining it to O’Neill in LF and Berti sending it to Williams in RF, who would make a slick diving catch to put an exclamation point on this SWEEP!!!!
The Cardinals (4-2) head back home on a #happyflight to host the Brewers (3-3) for their home opener. Uncle Charlie (0-1, 20.25) gets the opening day honors, facing off against the nasty Corbin Burnes (0-1, 1.42). First pitch from Busch Stadium is scheduled for 3:15pm c/t.
Cheers, Stew